Application of MBPC to a distillation column at the Grangemouth oil refinery

Summary form only given. The paper covers work carried out by BP Engineering at BP Oil Grangemouth Refinery in Scotland. The `Connoisseur´ modelling and control design/simulation package, from Predictive Control Ltd. of Manchester, was linked into the plant control system as part of the project. An overriding aim of the work was to assess the level of ability/specialist knowledge required to make use of such packages in a practical situation. Monitoring and analysis of plant data concentrated on the distillation section of a distillate hydrotreater unit (DHT). Plant modelling to produce predictive relationships for key qualities was carried out and subsequently model-based predictive control (MBPC) algorithms developed and implemented. Monitoring of the plant with and without the new algorithms in use enabled engineers to assess the effectiveness of such techniques